News From National
CFUW Renaming and Visual Identity Initiatives
This initiative by the 2020-22 Board started as a visual recognition project. Following some initial surveys and discussion with KIK Partners, the company selected to develop the new CFUW visual identity, it was established that a new name was needed before developing a new visual identity. The surveys had established that there was considerable interest in anew name. In particular, a problem with the "U" was identified as well as the fact that our name doesn't say what we do. Following a couple of renaming exercises conducted by KIK, naming options were were narrowed down to "Canadian Federation of Women (CFW), Canadian Federation for the Advancement of Women (CFAW) or no change.
In June two town-halls were held by Zoom for the purposes of "taking the temperature of the membership regarding the potential of a name change" and "to engage membership in dialogue about potential names". The three naming options were discussed in Breakout Rooms with the direction to return prepared to select from the three options. Everyone present got to put forward a anonymous individual vote. The Vote was to remain the same (CFUW), make a simple change (CFW) or to move forward (CFAW). The move forward option was adopted by both town-halls with 82% and 58% of the votes. Stand by for further updates on the name change as the new CFUW Board works through the requirements regarding a name change and a new visual identity.
2022 National Annual General Meeting and Policy Session
The theme of this virtual meeting was "Reconciliation, Revitalization and Renewal". The proceedings began on the evening of August 26th with the presentation of awards. The event was a virtual reception with musical performances by Barbara Lewis, a CFUW member, and the CFUW Ottawa Madrigals, a choir interest group. Awards were given for membership increases, special projects, and in the area of International Relations. The Library and Creative Arts Award was also presented. A Certificate of Merit was presented by the International Relations Committee to CFUW St. John's for its program of Virtual International Experiences. Recognition for another Maritime club was given to CFUW Fredericton as the runner-up for the Library Award, for its contribution to the Seminar Room at Hanwell Community School.
The AGM convened the next and covered:
Amendments to the Articles and Bylaws - These were adopted as circulated with one exception' the proposal to remove the approval of the annual budget by the membership at the Annual general Meeting did not pass.
Financial Documents - Members approved the financial statements for last year and the operating budget for the upcoming year.
Election of the Board of Directors for the 2022-2024Biennium
Attendees also enjoyed a presentation by Eileen Olexiuk. Now retired, she was a groundbreaking Canadian female diplomat who was assigned to Afghanistan when the Canadian Embassy was established there in 2003.
One of the saddest parts of the meeting came at the end when we had to say goodbye to our Executive Director of the last 10 years, Robin Jackson. She will be leaving us later this fall. The new Board of Directors will be conducting a search for her replacement.
The Policy Session was held on Sunday, August 28th. There were two items on the agenda.
Adoption of the 2022 Resolutions - All six Resolutions presented were adopted.
Granting of Honorary Membership to Dr. Anne Innis Dagg - Dr. Dagg is a groundbreaking zoologist who is an authority on giraffes. She was nominated by CFUW Hamilton. members voted to grant honorary membership to Dr. Dagg.
2021 National Annual General Meeting and Policy Session
The CFUW AGM was held virtually on Friday and Saturday, June 25 and 26. Margaret Therrien, Janet Willwerth and Lorraine Baxter attended the meetings. Lorraine cast the votes for CFUW Halifax. The meetings were chaired by Kathryn Wilkinson, National President. The 4 resolutions we reviewed as a club were approved. (See Issues and Advocacy page on this website) These are all very important resolutions, but we especially salute the Cape Breton Club who, with so few members, presented a very important resolution. They are an inspiration to all!
Two bylaws were also approved as amended: the CFUW Aurora-Newmarket and CFUW Markham-Unionville motion and the CFUW Moncton proposal. These bylaws govern the fees paid by member clubs who choose to opt-in or opt-out of GWI. What most concerns our club is that the dues set for clubs who choose to opt out of GWI will now be set at $55.00 with no Swiss franc calculations included.
CFUW Clubs and GWI
At the Board meeting on Tuesday, December 1, a motion was passed to allow Clubs to opt out of the GWI per capita dues calculation beginning with the 2022 GWI dues. This means the CFUW's dues obligation to GWI will be based on the number of members in clubs that did not opt out. All clubs will continue to pay CFUW per capita dues of #76.00 unless the dues are changed at an AGM.
CFUW Halifax will discuss this motion over the February and March meetings. We will vote on this motion by the end of March so we can register our decision with National by March 31st.
2020 National AGM
The CFUW AGM was held virtually on June 19th and 20th. Seven hours of presentations, discussions and votes was attended by Lorraine Baxter, Janet Willwerth and Margaret Therrien. The AGM was chaired by Grace Hollett, National President and Kathryn Wilkinson VP Advocacy. It was an ambitious agenda but the two days of virtual meetings managed to cover all ten of the proposed amendments to the Articles and Bylaws. In this group of ten amendments was that the CFUW method of voting based on number of Club members was retained and the Guelph motion requesting a change to Article 4 by removing the requirement for CFUW to be a member of GWI was defeated. On Friday, the Nomination Committee presented the slate of candidates for the next CFUW biennium and clubs voted on the contested positions. The election results were revealed on Saturday and Kathryn Wilkinson is the new National President. The other order of business that was covered at the AGM was the financial report and the Clubs voted to accept the audited financial statement, the auditors for 2020-2021 and the proposed operating budget for 2020-2021 with its small projected deficit. As AGM meeting time had expired, a motion was put before the meeting requesting support for the holding of a Special General Meeting on August 8th in order to complete AGM business – this motion passed.
CFUW Special General Meeting
On August 8th, 2020 a virtual Special General Meeting was convened to complete CFUW business which was not completed at the June AGM. The first order of business was the Nepean motion proposing a $5.00 per capita increase in CFUW dues. This motion was defeated. Next on the agenda was the Ottawa motion on the Need for a Balanced Budget. Substantial discussion ensured regarding this motion but when put to a vote the motion was defeated. A budget is just a budget! The Resolutions Chair then took over chairing the meeting while two Emergency Resolutions – both on Long-Term Care and six regular resolutions were all discussed and voted on. All resolutions were accepted by the membership. For more information on these resolutions see the Issues and Advocacy page of this website. The meeting was extended for an hour in order to allow several reports to be presented. These included a report on the Mediation Working Group, a report by Past President, Grace Hollett and a report by the Executive Director who titled her report “It was the Best of Times and the Worst of Times” referring to the challenges that COVID-19 had presented. An invitation was extended for next June’s AGM to be held virtually on June 25, 2021.
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2019 Annual General Meeting and Conference
100 Years of CFUW - The Power of Women Working Together
The Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) hosted its Annual General meeting and Conference in Winnipeg from August 15-17 at the Fort Garry Hotel. It is very fitting that Winnipeg was the location of our meeting since it was in Winnipeg in 1919 that representatives of the University Women's Clubs of Canada met to organize CFUW. Our AGM this year celebrated our 100 year anniversary and we had a unique opportunity to tell our stories and discuss the impact of CFUW at the local, provincial, national and international levels. CFUW set the stage for vibrant growth over the next century in its work on women's rights, education and social justice.
The AGM's opening reception was held on August 15 and was followed by a day of engaging speakers to celebrate CFUW's History and Future. The Banquet on August 16 honoured CFUW's Notable Women.
The slogan for the Anniversary is: 100 Years of CFUW - The Power of Women Working Together which is on our logo for this year's AGM. We celebrated our 100th Anniversary through the Notable Women Awards, the SAGE Awards, the unveiling of the CFUW plaque by the Government of Canada, the addition of over $210.000 to the usual $1 million awarded each year for women's education; the 100th Anniversary Membership Campaign; the advocacy initiative Grandparents for Childcare; a presentation on CFUW's upcoming History book, and a draw for two beautiful blue enamal pins that were created in 1924. We look forward to the next 100 years!
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CFUW 100th ANNIVERSARY SCARF
CFUW has started an initiative to have members send in pictures of statues of women wearing our CFUW 100th Anniversary scarf. They have already received quite a few fantastic submissions.
Margaret Therrien and Elaine Gunn took this request to heart and earlier in the summer they went to the Women on the Waterfront statues to take some pictures. These were delivered to National to be used at the 100th Anniversary AGM next summer in Winnipeg. Does anyone know of any other statues of women here in Halifax.
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CFUW VIRTUAL AGM 2018
For the first time in almost a 100 years the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) held its Annual General Meeting electronically. CFUW members did an excellent job at making it a technological success by engaging effectively with the webcast platform and participating in the training sessions prior to this event.
The Annual General Meeting took place on June 23, 2018.
A few changes were made to the articles and bylaws, budget 2018/2019 was approved, three new resolutions were adopted, elections were held for the position of President, VP Membership and VP International Relations and many board members and RDs were acclaimed.
Attendance and Participation
In total, 410 individuals tuned in the webcast platform. Of the 366 votes available on the floor, an average of 306 votes were cast per AGM motion.
Participants were able to discuss motions by phoning in. Points of order, motions and points of information were also submitted via the chat function and addressed verbally.
Report of the Nominations Committee and New National Board and RDs
During the AGM, Kathryn Wilkinson, VP Education, opened the floor for nominations of board members. There were no nominations from the floor.
Voting delegates had 40 minutes at the lunch break to cast their votes for the candidates in three positions: President, VP Membership and VP International Relations.
Along with the elections, many members of the CFUW Board and RDs were nominated and acclaimed. Here is the complete list of the new executive:
Grace Hollett, President
Joy Hurst, VP Prairies
Debra Christiansen Stowe, VP Quebec
Lynn Kent, VP Membership
Kathryn Wilkinson, VP Education
Barbara DuMoulin, VP British Columbia
Sandy Thompson, VP Ontario
Cheryl Ambrose, VP Advocacy
Carol Motuz, VP International Relations
Vacant, VP Atlantic
Vacant, VP Finance
Sheila Service, RD BC Vancouver Island
Alison Hutchison, RD BC Interior
Mary Rowan, RD Saskatchewan
Vacant, RD Ontario North
Mary Jane Waszynski, RD Ontario South
Mary Partington, RD Ontario East
Jane Cowell-Poitras, RD Quebec English
Anne Lise Dupuis, RD Quebec French
Vacant, RD New Brunswick
Vacant, RD Prince Edward Island
Beryl Matthewson, RD BC West
Pati Johnsen, RD Alberta
Patricia Mary Elliot, RD Manitoba
Susan Vecchiarelli, RD Ontario West
Moira Hudgin, RD Ontario Central
Lori Ker, RD Ontario Huron
Vacant, RD Nova Scotia
Vacant, RD Newfoundland and Labrador
Congratulations to all the Board members and RDs who submitted their names for nomination!
Report of the Finance Committee
Eoin Ruane, an auditor from the Frouin Group, presented the 2017-2018 Audited Financial Statements, and Helen Sami, Vice President Finance presented CFUW’s proposed budget for the upcoming year. Motions to approve these documents were passed by delegates.
It is to be noted, the operating budget passed with an amendment to increase the exchange rate for Swiss francs from 1.40 to 1.45, therefore increasing the Operating budget deficit from $53,568 to $59,568.
The motion to renew the Frouin Group as CFUW’s auditors was approved.
The Winnipeg motion to create two types of membership’s dues, one for members of CFUW and one for members of CFUW and GWI was lost by a small margin (61.45% Yes; 38.55% No). The motion to increase the membership dues failed as well (65.77% Yes, 34.23%). Both motions required 2/3 of the votes in order to pass.
Changes to the Articles and Bylaws
Myra Willis, Chair of the Articles and Bylaws Committee presented five proposals for amendment to bylaws.
Proposal 1: The motion on a provision to call special board meetings was carried.
Proposal 2: An amendment to proposal 2 asking to vote the items separately was submitted.
Points a, c, d and e of proposal 2 were adopted and point b failed.
Motion – “that the bylaw amendments for Proposal Two points a-e be adopted.”
See the amended points in bold in the text.
a. Eligible Voters means designated representatives of Clubs in good standing, members of the Board of Directors, Regional Directors and Past National Presidents in good standing. All may vote at CFUW annual and special general meetings on motions brought to the voting body as allowed in the CFUW bylaws.
c. 104. In addition to Club delegates, all Regional Directors, Past National Presidents and current board members shall have one vote each. Each of these non-Club delegate voters shall be allowed only one vote regardless of the number of Eligible Voter positions she holds at the time of the annual general meeting vote. These non-Club delegates may not vote by proxy.
d. 107. Individual Club members in good standing with her club may attend CFUW annual and special meetings whether or not they are eligible to vote and may participate in the discussion at the meeting.
e. 51. A Regional Director must be an individual member in good standing of a CFUW club and must reside in the Region. She shall be nominated and elected by the Clubs in that Region.
Proposal 3: The motion to pay dues at the revised rate at the beginning of the CFUW fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the change is approved was carried.
Proposal 4: The motion that eliminates bylaw 39, a bylaw that does not provide the membership with the intended power was carried.
Proposal 5: The motion to adopt the amendments 5a, 5b, 5c that clarify the definitions of term of office and Past President and establish what constitutes serving a full term when considering term limits and voter eligibility was carried.
